The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-08-20

The Remains of President Tylers
Nephew Consigned to the Oven.
Cincinnati ENQUIRER,

westward along browne street, and
the people along the solemn line of
march stood in their door yards
and wondered where the cortege
could be going, MS there are no GEM
eteries in that direction. The pro-
cession was proceeding to the crem-
atory, which stands on the brow of
thehill to the east of Dixmyth ave-
nue., strongly reminding the behold
er of the ruins of some feudal castle.
The cortege wended its way to the
crematory, instead of the cemetery,
in accordance with the ante -mortem
request of the deceased. The de-
ceased was John Tyler, of Milldale,
Kentucky, who had gone five years
beyond mans allotted three score
years and ten. He claimed to be a
nephew of President Tyler. He
was a man of some property and
means and was noted in the COM
munity in which he resided for
certain eccentricities. During the
last few years of his life he was an
enthusiast on the subject Of crema-
ton, and never failed to visit the
sick of his ncighborhood to advise
them that if the worst should come
the wisest disposition that they
could have made of their remains
would be to have them cremated.
He was a stockholder in the crema-
tory in which his own remains were
yesterday incinerated. Before his
death the deceased, in keeping with
the eccentricities for which he was
noted, gave directions that his body
should not be placed on ice, and
that his coffin should be the plain
est and the most inexpensive to be
found. This last request, at least,
was certainly carried out most con:
scientiously. 1t was about 3 o'clock
yesterday afternoon when the hearse
and two carriages containing
mourners came to the crematory.
The news that there was to be a
cremation had gone abroad, and
fully 200 people stood about in a
roasting sun awaiting the arrival
of the remains. The mourners
carried with them a glass urn in
which TO receive the ashes after the
incineration. The great furnace
was in readiness to receive the body,
the stoker standing at its hot and
glowing mouth feeding it coke.
The very plain coffin was taken
from the hearse and carried into
one of the ante-rooms of the Gre
matory. There the body was taken
from the coffin by two attendants,
denuded of its shroud and wrap
ped in an alum-soaked winding
sheet.
The body was then placed on an
iron car-cradle, the attendants
called it. The car, or truck, is a
four-wheelcd affair about the length
of the human body, the fiat iron
bars of which it is constructed
crossing each other at right angles,
leaving regular series Of open
squares. Through these open spa
ces the ashes drop into the bed of
fire below, according as the body
incinerates. 1t is only the small
proportion of the ashes clinging to
the bars that are preserved for the
friends. The body, wrapped up
completely, head and all, in the
alum-soaked winding-sheet, was
laid upon the car, and the car with
vigorous push was rolled into the
fiery furnace.
whats the idea Of wrapping the
body in an alum-soaked sheet?"
was asked of the attendant.
"Alum resists fire." was the re-
ply, "aDd while the sheet is compar-
atively uninjured by the heat, the
body within its folds is rapidly in
cinerating. The idea is to conceal
the body during the process of Gre
nation, in order to shut out from
the sight of the friends the unpleas-
ant spectacle of seeing the departed
ones flesh baking to a crisp and
the bones burning to ashes"
The heat of the furnace was al
most inconccivably intense. 1t was
at such degree of white heat that
a glance within revealed the cmbers
fairly glistening like snow beneath
the cold rays of January sun.
The temperature was up to $500
degrees. Still, so thick are the
brick walls of the oven that one
could stand within six inches. of it
with comfort except when the sto-
ker opened the heavy iron door to
shovel in more coke. Twice, at the
request of the mourners,the attend
ant opened the door and allowed
them to look at the body.
The widow, a very pleasing look
ing woman of about 35-she was
the second wife Of the deceased
looked in with the others. She
seemed we'll pleased with the pro-
cess of incineration, for after the
second look she remarked that she
believed cremation to be better than
burial, and that when her time
comes she guessed she'd have her